últimas corrientes teóricas en los estudios de traducción - Gredos ...

ADAURI BREZOLIN: RECENT WORK ON THE TEACHING OF TRANSLATION IN BRAZIL
On the one hand, a foreign language student can be or not highly proficient in
his/her mother tongue (L1); he/she does not need to be specifically skillful in any ability in
L1, his/her knowledge of the foreign language (L2) can be very poor; his/her linguistic
point of departure may be L1; his/her abilities to developed in L2 are listening, reading,
speaking and writing; his/her production language is L2 and his/her use of L1 via
translation can be fragmented. On the other hand, a translation student must be either
highly proficient or highly skilled in L1; he/she needs to be specifically skillful in writing in
L1, his/her knowledge of L2 must be advanced; his/her linguistic point of departure is L2;
his/her abilities to developed in L2 are reading and understanding; his/her production
language is L1 and his/her use of L1 is elaborate, translation proper.
It is believed, this way, that foreign language students can, if beginners, have no
previous knowledge of L2 and should make minimum use of L1 in order to avoid any
negative impact on his/her acquisition process of the four skills (listening, reading,
speaking and writing) in L2. If the foreign language teacher or student needs to use
translation (from L2 to L1), this activity can serve as a quick comprehension device, whose
scantness or fragmentation does not prevent the student from achieving his/her goal
(understanding something which had not been clear, for instance). Translation students, in
turn, must go in a different direction as far as prioritizing languages is concerned. They
should show a high level of comprehension in L2 and, as long as possible, try to avoid any
interference of L2 in order to produce a translated text, which corresponds to its linguistic,
stylistic and pragmatic objectives in this other culture. Translation, in this case, is, therefore,
the goal to be attained, and students must make an elaborate use of L1 (the fragmented use
of translation as in language teaching/learning is no longer satisfactory). Students must,
now, produce a cohesively and coherently articulated text, in L1, obviously having departed
from L2.
If these two competing types of students have these distinct profiles, it is easier to
understand that the role of translation in each type of training is also different. For foreign
language students, translation can be a mere teaching/learning device to make learners
achieve language proficiency. Translation, in this case, can be seen as a means. For
translation students, however, translation is the goal to be achieved. Here, an end in itself.
It is our expectation that, if Translation Programs have a well-defined structure with clearcut
objectives accounting for this specificity of translation, they can train translators with a
profile much closer to the professional’s.
A program in Translation, our main focus of attention, should, then, concentrate
on translation as an end in itself. Even considering that students lack a very good
command of the foreign language, teachers of translation programs should adopt an
approach that would account for this reality and emphasize text production in the target
language. Though a translation graduate will translate into the foreign language as well, in
Brazil, at least, rendition into the mother tongue is much more common, so emphasis
should be placed on understanding the foreign language and writing in the mother tongue
very well. That is, classes should not be meant to develop the students’ four skills, such as
in language programs, but should be limited to the skills which are mostly demanded from
a translator: reading/understanding the foreign language and writing the mother tongue.
In sum, better results can only be achieved, when some changes have been effected.
On this list, we also include: a more strict selection of students admitted to such programs;
the abandon of the long-standing idea that Translation Programs should provide students
with language proficiency, instead of translation competence; and the effort of
69